The present invention concerns a method and device for the decoupling and/or coupling and/or keeping coupled of transport elements to a drive mechanism.
In particular the invention concerns a method for the decoupling and/or coupling and/or keeping coupled of transport elements to a drive mechanism which has a mainly continuously moving drive element, such as an endless chain, whereby the decoupling and/or coupling and/or keeping coupled is done by means of a coupling element provided onto the transport element which acts onto the drive element.
The invention mainly aims at distribution systems to automatically distribute goods and such in work rooms, such as shop floors, whereby the transport elements consist of trolleys which are loaded in specific places, which are subsequently coupled to the drive element and are detached at the place of destination of the drive element.
In the known devices, the trolleys are coupled to the chain by means of a pin. Since the chain moves at a constant speed, this is disadvantageous in that it is rather difficult to decouple a trolley and in that the trolley jolts away as it is coupled, whereby both the coupling pin and the chain are heavily loaded.